page_title: Arturo Prat
section_title: War of the Pacific
hierarchical_section_title: Arturo Prat / War of the Pacific
caption_attribution_description: Monument to the heroes of Iquique (and cript), at Plaza Sotomayor, Valparaíso
context_page_description: Agustín Arturo Prat Chacón was a Chilean lawyer and navy officer. He was killed in the Battle of Iquique, during the War of the Pacific.
  During his career, Prat had taken part in several naval engagements, including battles at Papudo, and at the Abtao. Following his death, his name became a rallying cry for Chilean forces, and Arturo Prat has since been considered a national hero.
  Prat's name is commemorated on numerous plazas, streets, buildings and other structures in Chile. His name has been commemorated by four of Chile's major warships, including a Brooklyn-class cruiser in the 1950s, a British County-class destroyer from 1983 to 2006, and most recently a Dutch Jacob van Heemskerck-class frigate transferred to Chile as Capitan Prat in 2006. One of Chile's Antarctic research facilities, Arturo Prat Station, and the Chilean Naval Academy, Escuela Naval Arturo Prat are named after him. His portrait appears on the 10,000 Chilean peso bank note. Also, in 1984 Arturo Prat University was founded, with its main campus in Iquique where his heroic deed took place.
context_section_description: When the war broke out, Prat was assigned to assistant of the Navy General Command, a position he tried to reject.
  When Don Rafael Sotomayor Baeza was required to go to Antofagasta with instructions from the Government, he requested an assistant, and Prat was assigned to the job. Being both of them aboard the armored Blanco Encalada, he was assigned to notify Iquique's authorities that they have been blocked by the Chilean army, which he did without letting the hostile position of the people daunt him.
  He was assigned Covadonga's command. On 3 May the corvette Abtao, under lieutenant commander  Carlos Condell de la Haza's command, and Covadonga, under Prat's command, set sail towards Iquique arriving on 10 May.
  To achieve the plan that Admiral Juan Williams Rebolledo had conceived, consisting of attacking the Peruvian squadron in Callao's port, he assigned as Abtao's commander Manuel Thompson, who commanded the corvette Esmeralda until then. Arturo Prat replaced him, and Carlos Condell de la Haza was designated Covadonga's commander.
  On 16 May, the squadron set sail to Callao, with the intention of surprising the Peruvian warships, but the same day Peruvian monitor Huáscar and armored frigate Independencia set sail from that port, towards Arica, to carry reinforcements, armaments, ammunition and provisions, so both squadrons missed each other on their trips.
caption: Heroes of Iquique monument and crypt in Valparaíso, Chile. At the top is the statue of Prat, on the second level statues of Serrano, Riquelme, Aldea and a generic seaman
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